Thirteen

Thirteen
by Richard K. Morgan

Published:

Started: 01/17/18
Finished: 10/24/18

Setting: 2107



Part One: Down in Flames

Chapter 1

Carl Marsalis chases Gray, a fugitive, who has relocated to Garrod Horkan Camp 9, in South America. Does he need to take the fugitive alive? Unclear. Marsalis winds up killing him and the woman he is with.

Chapter 2

Fallout from the events of Chapter 1. The local security isn’t very happy with Carl’s actions. They are forced to let him go because of his status. He travels to Lima and then on to Miami. He gets turned on by a woman (a doctor) who deflects his advances. He winds up with a prostitute who tricks him into giving her money for an abortion. He gets into a fight with Miami Vice cops and gets arrested.

Chapter 3

A rapid response team is sent to investigate a spaceship which has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Spaceships no longer land on Earth but on elevated platforms far above it. The chapter is told from the perspective of a member of the team: Joey Driscoll. The only other team member who is named is Zdena. Joey is the point man. He goes in alone. The chapter ends on a cliffhanger as Joey falls, land on something soft, and begins to vomit.

Chapter 4

NYPD Detective Sevgi Ertekin wakes up in her apartment in New York City. She is hungover. She pulls herself together and meets up with Tom Norton, her partner. They have a new assignment related to the events of Chapter 3.

They fly to San Francisco to lend a hand in the investigation of Horkan’s Pride, the spaceship that splashed down in the Pacific. There they meet Rovayo and Coyle, the SFPD assigned to the case. They also meet Captain Tsai, whom Ertekin has met before. Horkan’s Pride had been out of communication for 7.5 months as it fell to Earth. What they find inside the wreckage is that what is left of the crew had been mutilated using the auto-surgeon. What’s missing is believed to have been eaten.

Sevgi used to work homicide for NYPD but now works for the COLIN liaison department

Asia Badawi - famous actress whose voice is used for announcements by ??

Ethan - possible former partner of Ertekin whom she thinks about as they begin to investigate Horkan’s Pride.

Chapter 5

Ertekin, Norton, Rovayo, and Coyle examine the crime scene in a holographic recreation. A lot of time is spent discussing the logistics of how something like this crime would and could have been perpetrated. There is a lot of talk about how COLIN missions are run. Ertekin and Norton know considerably more than Rovayo and Coyle and have to answer lots of questions about why things couldn’t have worked out differently. Ertekin seems very reluctant to lay all her cards on the table but answers questions as they come up. She has some mental asides to Ethan. Still unclear if this is a former partner but that seems the most likely answer.

The chapter ends with the reveal that the culprit is most likely a variant 13 male. No explanation is given as to what that means.

Chapter 6

This chapter is related from the perspective of Scott, a guy who works in the Rim (Pacific Coast region of the former United States of America) but who came originally from Montana in what’s referred to as Jesusland. He immigrated illegally to the Rim and now works in an aqua farming operation (I think).

Scott is smitten by one of his coworkers, Carmen Ren. He follows her around like a lost puppy. She tells him a little bit about herself. She’s from Taiwan. She’s a bit vague about what brought her to the Rim.

He argues with and comes close to fighting with one of his other coworkers, Nocera. Their employer is Ulysses Ward. Something has gone wrong with the farming operation. Ward is very angry. While he is yelling about the problems they are having someone shows up. It seems Isn’t entirely clear who it is but I’m pretty sure isn’t the killer from Horkan’s Pride.

He takes out Nocera, Ward, and the chapter ends with it looking like Scott also gets killed. It is a blood bath. Ren’s fate is unclear. When last seen she was grappling with the killer but seeing as that the chapter is related from Scott’s perspective it is hard to tell how her fight with the killer ends.

Chapter 7

Sevgi and Tom talk about the case over dinner. They discuss a number of things related to the case: what to tell the public, whether to try and ditch the case and leave it for the locals, what really happened on Horkan’s Pride, their chances of catching the fugitive. Ethan’s name comes up again but just in Ertekin’s thoughts.

Chapter 8

Tom Norton visits his brother Jeff. Tom tells him a little about the case, that they suspect that the butcher is a variant-13. His brother works in the genetics field.

Tom and Jeff talk about variant-13s, super soldiers, and other genetically engineered humans. Tom thinks about the sex he had with Megan, his brother’s wife, while Jeff tells him about Nuying, one of his coworkers. Jeff feels no guilt about cheating on his wife with her or any of the other Bonobos, genetically engineered women bred for subservience.

Tom seems to look down on his older brother for cheating on Megan.

Chapter 9

Scott and Carmen survived the encounter with the killer from Horkan’s Pride. Now they are his traveling companions. All three are hiding in an old abandoned military base.

Carmen is keeping information from Scott. His upbringing and background leads him to the conclusion that the killer is either God or one of God’s messengers. He let’s enough information drop for Carmen to understand. She holds her cards a little closer to her vest.

She seduces Scott. It’s unclear what her reason is for doing so. I guess she needs him. She seems more capable than Scott. It seems like she must be hanging with the killer for a reason but it isn’t clear what that might be at this point.

The killer continues to be a lurker. Most of his actions seem to be described in retrospect, in this chapter and in the book up to this point.

One piece of information that Carmen does drop off is that she and Scott have to protect the killer. Someone is going to come after him. She describes this person as a black man. I think this is a reference to Carl. Where does her information come from? What exactly is she up to? Dunno.

Chapter 10

Eddie Tanaka unexpectedly runs into someone he knows near Van Horn, CA. That someone is the killer. What the killer wants is still unclear. Tanaka seems surprised to see him. He thought he was on Mars. Before he knows it the killer is taking him down.

Did Eddie Tanaka survive? Probably not but I’m not sure. I was wrong once before. Maybe the killer needs him alive.


Part Two: Off the Hook

Chapter 11

Carl has been in prison (South Florida State Partnership Correctional Facility) for 3 months, since he was captured by Miami police in chapter 2. He has not been formally charged with anything. He doesn’t know why they are still holding him but he has his suspicions that there’s more to it than his encounter with Miami Vice cops.

He is gearing up for a fight with Dudek, an Aryan Brother, in the prison chapel when something happens. The fight is about to occur when a couple correctional officers walk in and take him to meet Tom Norton. Norton says that he wants hire Carl.

Chapter 12

Carl and Sevgi talk while Tom deals with the warden. Allen Merrin, the killer, is a variant 13 from North America, part of Project Lawman. Essentially he was a special operations super-soldier. He was legendary. Records have him in two places at once and surviving wounds that should have killed him.

Carl is a veteran of a similar program (Osprey) from the UK. The French program was known as Department Eight. They were all black ops programs. Sometime in the late 21st century all the remaining super-soldiers were rounded up and sent to Mars.

Carl has one other thing in common with Merrin, he also survived an extended flight from Mars back to Earth, awake. It was only 2 months, not 33 weeks but he admits to having considered cannibalism.

Sevgi shares what she knows about Merrin’s activity since he got off Horkan’s Pride. They believe he has killed 20 people. They are able to confirm 17 are his dirty work through genetic evidence. They still have no clue as to his motivation. They don’t know about his traveling companions.

Ertekin gives Carl the chance to take care of some unfinished business before they leave. He goes to see the Guatemalan. Carl needs to make a call to someone on the outside. He makes a deal. He beats up Dudek bad enough to put him in the infirmary in return for the line out. Carl contacts UNGLA and let’s them know he is headed to NYC and will be losing Ertekin and Norton as soon as possible.

COLIN = (Western Nations) Colony Initiative

Chapter 13

Repaying his debt to the Guatemalan complicated his release from prison. Sevgi is pissed at him for costing them time. He doesn’t care. They miss the last flight for the night back to NYC. They sit on the beach and talk. She almost lets slip some information about Ethan, which I assume is that he was a Thirteen. The subject of religion comes up. Marsalis has some disparaging thoughts on the subject based on atrocities he saw committed in its name with his own eyes.

Another victim. Martin is back on the west coast. Marsalis, Norton, and Ertekin puzzle over the new murder and what to make of what they know about Merrin. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern.

Chapter 14

Someone leaks the fact that Marsalis is a Thirteen to the media. Protestors appear outside the gates of Perez nanorack. Flight operations are canceled. Carl, Sevgi, and Tom are stuck.

Sevgi and Carl talk about how the case is being spun to the media and review some of the facts and conjectures about how Merrin survived the landing and made it to land. There is some talk of Sundersen (another rogue variant 13) and Zhang Fever. They mention that there are two missing people (Carmen and Scott) but they don’t know their names or suspect that they are traveling with Merrin.

Chapter 15

Sevgi and Carl virtually look into the death of Toni Montes. She was killed in California. They are stuck in Florida but thanks to technology they are able to investigate the crime scene.

Marsalis concludes from the recreation of the death that Montes was someone who knew Merrin. He thinks that she had military training. Ertekin doesn’t buy it at first but he seems to talk her into buying his theory by the end of the chapter.

Chapter 16

Ertekin and Norton talk after she and Marsalis emerge from the VR crime scene. It looks like they may soon be able to depart Perez. Ertekin talks about Ethan, her former lover/partner who was also a dark-skinned variant 13. When they finally depart Perez Sevgi has a disturbing dream on the flight back.

Chapter 17

Sevgi, Carl, and Tom arrive back in NYC. It is 3 AM. They agree to meet at noon and then go home to get some rest. Sevgi takes Carl home with her to her 6th floor walkup.

She tells him about Ethan but also makes it sound like she knows what’s going through Carl’s head. He doesn’t take kindly to that and lashes back at her, verbally.

Later that night as he lies on her futon by himself he has a silent conversation with himself about her and about his situation

Chapter 18

Carl wakes before Sevgi and makes coffee. They talk s little bit. He catches a glimpse of her naked as she is about to get in the shower.

After she’s cleaned up, there’s no mention of him doing the same, they head out to meet Ortiz, her boss. Marsalis net Ortiz once before, in Brussels at a diplomatic meeting. Both men remember the meeting.

The meeting takes place on the street. Three people dressed in black skate up with guns and let loose on the small gathering. Carl’s reflexes are fast enough to push or pull Sevgi to the ground with him. He counterattacks and kills two of the assassins. The third one gets away. In the aftermath of the attack it looks like Ortiz is dead.

Also in this chapter: Carl thinks briefly of the Felipe Souza, the ship which brought him back to Earth. Carl has imaginary conversations with someone. I’m just noticing now thus parallel between Carl and Sevgi.

Chapter 19

Aftermath of the attack. Ortiz is still alive but on life support. Ertekin gets interrogated by Williamson, an NYPD detective who doesn’t seem to care that she used to be NYPD. Williamson is black which makes me think of Fred Williamson. He is more concerned with the fact that Marsalis is a thirteen. At first Eterkin is still in a bit of shock but she snaps out of it and gives Williamson a piece of her mind.

Tom Norton shows up. Eterkin is convinced that Ortiz wasn’t the target of the attack. It was Marsalis but she’s happy to let the NYPD go on thinking that it was Ortiz. Marsalis has convinced Eterkin that they need to query the n-jinn of the Horkan’s Pride directly. It takes a bit of work but they finally talk Norton into understanding why Merrin isn’t a serial killer but a killing machine on a mission.

Chapter 20

Marsalis queries the Horkan’s Pride’s n-jinn. It was perferriailly aware of what was going on during the trip from Mars to Earth. Because of the way it was programmed it did not step in or attempt to do anything to prevent Merrin from mutilating and eating the rest of the crew. It did record everything that happened and shows much of it to Marsalis.

Marsalis is questions the n-jinn because he wants to know what connection there is between himself and Merrin, aside from the obvious. The n-jinn comes up with a code name which leads Carl to a name. The code name is cormorant and the name is Gutierrez.

I searched the book. The word cormorant showed up in the prologue. The term was used by Merrin but there was no context given. This is the first use of the term since then. This is the first appearance of the name Gutierrez is the book.

Chapter 21

Carl tells Tom and Sevgi about Gutierrez. He also explains the meaning of cormorant. It all ties back to crime families on Mars and in South America.

Gutierrez is a data hack. He’s on Mars. Carl speculated that he probably helped Merrin get back to Earth. He doesn’t say anything about his own connections to Gutierrez.

He also tells them about Nevant, a French 13 who is locked up in Turkey, Anatolia to be precise. He wants to go see him, even though he’s the one responsible for Nevant’s incarceration. Sevgi is reluctant until they find out that the NYPD have leaked information to the press about Carl’s identity.


Part Three: Away From It All

Chapter 22

Tom Norton deals with the press while Sevgi Eterkin and Carl Marsalis travel to Turkey. She thinks about coming to North America from Turkey for the first time. She tells Carl about Ethan, about how he was living undercover until the authorities found out. He disguised the fact that he was a Thirteen. She was 6 months pregnant when they caught and killed Ethan.

Lindsey v. NSA comes up during the press conference. It was previously mentioned in chapter 16. This is the only other mention in the book.

Chapter 23

Sevgi and Carl drink and talk. She tells him more about Ethan: how they met, how she found out he was a Thirteen, about an acquaintance of Ethan’s that showed up out of the blue, what happened to him, how they induced labor and took her child from her.

Chapter 24

Tom has a virtual chat with his brother Jeff. He wants Jeff’s opinion about the effect Carl might be having on Sevgi. He tells Jeff about Ethan, something he hadn’t shared with him before.

Chapter 25

Marsalis finds someone to help him get a chance to talk to Nevant. He arranges the meet from th flat where he and Eterkin are staying.

Chapter 26

Marsalis and Nevant talk, in a restaurant, while Eterkin and Yavuz keep an eye on them. They talk of past history and shared history. Eventually Nevant’s had enough and attacks Marsalis.

Chapter 27

Sevgi and Carl talk about what happened at the cafe. She doesn’t understand why Nevant did what he did considering the cost. They don’t agree to disagree. They don’t see eye to eye. They do fuck for the first time.

Chapter 28

Sevgi talks to Tom. He’s pissed. She isn’t.

Eterkin and Marsalis head to Peru. He looks up an old acquaintance, Manco Bambarén, a local mob boss. Carl has to go through an investigation intermediary, Greta Jurgens to get Manco on the phone.

Chapter 29

Carl talks to Manco Bambarén near Sacsayhuamán. He doesn’t get the information he was hoping to get. For a moment it looks like a fight might break out. After the meeting Carl suggests they pay a visit to Greta Jurgens in Arequipa.

Chapter 30

Sevgi and Carl talk during the drive to Arequipa. He tells her about his religious like experience aboard the Felipe Souza for 5 months. He talks of one of the cryocap passengers, Elena Aguirre, and staring out at the stars. The chapters ends with their vehicle getting hacked. They prepare to defend themselves against whomever has forced their vehicle to diverge from its planned route.

Chapter 31

Carl and Sevgi deal with the would-be kidnappers or killers who hacked their vehicle. They deal with them by violent means which leave just Sevgi and Carl alive. They get into an argument after the firefight. Sevgi gets a call from Tom who tells them it is time to return to the States. Carl objects. They have yet to talk to Greta and that’s when they get into an argument that ends with Sevgi decking him.


Part Four: Out to Sea

Chapter 32

Marsalis confronts Greta Jurgens without Ertekin. He puts several names to her, including Merrin. Carl’s convinced that she recognized Merrin’s name even though she claimed she didn’t. Sevgi breaks up the meeting once she discovers Carl is gone.

Chapter 33

Ertekin, Marsalis, Norton, Rovayo, and Coyle meet in virtual space to examine the latest evidence. Filigree Steel, Ulysses Ward. Marsalis and Coyle bristle at one another. Coyle doesn’t care for Marsalis’ kind. He seems to be trying to keep it clean but drops a few slurs during their chat. Not much is made clear.

Chapter 34

Rovayo talks to Marsalis. It seems like she flirting with him, the way she twists her body. Nothing overt but that’s the impression I got.

They watch a video of an interrogation, from Mars. It is fairly recent. Some cops are interrogating Gutierrez, the datahawk who helped Marsalis get back to a Earth. He doesn’t break, doesn’t tell them anything about Horkan’s Pride. Marsalis explains why.

Eterkin wants him to interrogate Gutierrez. She seems to think he can scare him enough to give up what he knows. Carl isn’t convinced and he suspects that Morton knows more than he is letting on.

Chapter 35

Marsalis hangs with Rovayo. He talks about his past, some of his memories from childhood. She shares some information about herself. Her mother was a bonobo, genetically engineered to be subservient or at least in need of men. I’m not sure I described that right but I’m not sure if there is an objective description of what a bonobo is. In case there is any doubt, they fuck, numerous times, and commiserate a bit.

Chapter 36

Marsalis and Rovayo visit Bulgakov’s Cat, a floating factory city. Carl wants to know why Ward BioSupply traveled a ways out their usual area of operations to service Bulgakov’s Cat. They have to work to get to see someone but when they do it is Carmen Ren who hasn’t been seen since Part 2 (?). Marsalis gives her the third degree. Throws around Merlin’s name. Ren does her best to act like she doesn’t know what he’s talking about but of course she does. It is just a matter of how much she knows. The chapter ends with some crazed individual launching at attack with a machete. Could it be Merrin?

Daskeen Azul = Company that owns and operates Bulgakov’s Cat.

Chapter 37

Scott Osborne reflects on his time since he hooked up with Carmen Ren and since they hooked up with Allen Merrin. He doesn’t like living on Bulgakov’s Cat with or without Carmen. He also feels like he is losing her to him. There’s a lot of anger building up inside Scott. He needs to vent and when he sees Carl giving Carmen the third degree he decides he needs to do something.

Scott attacks Marsalis and Rovayo with a machete. He isn’t fast enough for Carl but he puts up a struggle. Carl slaps him around and breaks his finger. Scott babbles on about the second coming of Jesus and judgement. He inadvertently mentions Merrin’s name. Carl lets Scott get away and then takes off after him, probably in the hope that Osborne will lead him to Merrin.

Chapter 38

Sevgi finds out from Norton what he knows about Carl and Rovayo’s trip to the floating factory city known as Bulgakov’s Cat.

Carl continues to chase Scott lower and lower into the bowels of the ship. Marsalis finds Scott, plus Merrin and Ren, deep down in the ship. They are about to attempt an escape when Carl strikes. He kills Scott with a shark punch gun. He and Merrin go hand to hand. In the end it looks like Carl kills him but that’s where the chapter ends, inconclusively.

Chapter 39

Sevgi and Carl talk in the aftermath of the fight. She is ready to pack it in and head home. He’s convinced that it was too easy. Merrin is dead. Carl wants to know who was pulling the strings, who was behind it all. Sevgi isn’t buying it but she shares a spliff with him while they talk.

I tend to agree with Carl. There is still a ways to go in the book. Merrin can’t have been the mastermind behind it all. He was more of a distraction than anything else but what were his actions masking? What’s the story behind Carmen Ren? She’s the only one from Daskeen Azul who got away. Carl is convinced that she’s a professional of some sort but professional what isn’t clear. Presumably he means a trained assassin or spy or something along those lines.

Chapter 40

Carl is back in San Francisco and turns down a job offer from Gianfranco di Palma.

Sevgi is still aboard Bulgakov’s Cat. She gets a call from Detective Williamson (NYPD). He has some information for her about the attempt on Ortiz’s life. They caught the one perpetrator who got away. Williamson passes along what they learned from him including an electronic copy of the file.

Marsalis looks for dirt on Norton. The datahawk he contacts can’t find a thing on Norton. He’s as clean as a whistle. That sounds suspicious to me. Usually in these sorts of books when someone has that clean a record it usually means that it has been professionally scrubbed.

Chapter 41

Carl gets into a fight in a dive bar. He kills Dougie Kwang, a nameless thug except for the fact that he isn’t nameless, in a fight prompted by Kwang taking umbrage at Marsalis choice of female companion.

Kwang isn’t dead for long, minutes at most, before someone comes looking for Carl. His name is Onbekend, he’s a Thirteen, and he is there to kill and make it look like suicide. The two men argue over what it means to be a Thirteen in a world run by cudlips, ordinary humans. Carl turns the argument from verbal to physical when he spots an opening. He has a momentary advantage but that seems to evaporate quickly.

Chapter 42

Sevgi bursts in and saves Carl. She kills two of the three men with her Mars tech pistol. Onbekend, the third one, gets away. They exchange gun fire. She hits him and he hits her but he gets away. He was using a Haag pistol. Ertekin’s in really bad shape, delirious, and gets carted off to a hospital without Marsalis as the chapter ends

Part Five: Home to Roost

Chapter 43

Marsalis sits on a bench and chats with Norton about the events that led to Eterkin getting shot with a Haag gun. She’s in the hospital now. They are doing all they can for her but it is just a matter of time before her body will give out or give in.

Carl visits with Sevgi in a virtual space. They talk mostly about her health. She asks him for two favors. The first is that she wants him to stay with her. The second isn’t explained but he seems to know or intuit what it is. Does she want him to kill her?

Chapter 44

Marsalis talks to Norton and gets him to arrange a call with Franklin Guttierez, on Mars. Through the vastness of space, over a distance of 250 million miles, Carl intimidates the data broker into revealing what he knows about Merrin and why he helped him leave Mars.

Chapter 45

Carl ponders what Sevgi said, that he was the only clean one. What did she mean exactly? He thinks about her words as he reviews the footage of the interrogation of Gutierrez.

Carl contacts Matthew, the data hawk. He learns from him that di Palma has been in contact with Matthew and told him not to talk to Marsalis. Matthew sees Marsalis as a friend and doesn’t work for di Palma.

Carl bumps into a woman on the street while he is deep in thought. It isn’t until five minutes later that he recognizes her. It is Carmen Ren. He rushes back to the spot but she is gone.

Chapter 46

Carl and Tom visit with Sevgi in the virtual environment. Carl explains what Matthew the datahawk found out: Manco Bambarén’s mother is also Herren’s mother. They can’t place the two men together at any one point in time and it seems like a slim connection but it is all that they’ve got.

Carl also tells them about the microphone they found on him and about running into Carmen Ren. Tom leaves. She tells Carl about her father’s visit. She doesn’t want to die like this. It still seems as though she may want Carl to end her life but it’s still unclear if that is the case.

Chapter 47

Carl talks to Sevgi’s father. He gets to hear his side of the story, what it was like for Sevgi growing up. Her father has bought the tool to euthanize her but he needs Carl to do it for him. He’s a doctor and she’s his daughter. He can’t do it himself.

Carl spends time with Sevgi in person. Communicating through the VR environment is no longer an option. The end is near. He tells her about how he won the lottery and made it back from Mars. She tells him about how she was planning to murder the woman she suspected of informing on Ethan. Her name was Amy Westhoff. She worked in the datacrimes office.

Sevgi eventually decides that she’s had enough. They could keep her alive for another month but she doesn’t want to prolong this part of her life anymore. Carl, Tom, and her father are their at the end. Carl administers the lethal dose. Her father does what he can to prevent the development the machines attached to her from notifying the hospital staff of her condition. Tom will take care of smoothing things over with the hospital once she’s gone.

I remember that this happened to Sevgi. I didn’t recall how prolonged her end in the hospital was. I was in a much different place then. My father was still alive but I’m sure I was moved by the ending. It just feels like it must be different this time around even though I don’t recall exactly how it felt the last time or have any clear memories of it.

Chapter 48

Marsalis leaves the hospital. He talks to Norton before leaving about some Mars tech. Presumably he gets it because there is no mention of what it is or whether he got it.

He cleans up and heads out. He buys some cheap disposable mobile phones from a small shop. He uses one of them to call the Guatemalan back in Florida. Marsalis is looking for information about Bambarén’s cousin. All that Norton could tell him is that he had served his time and been released. Norton was unable or unwilling to press his contacts in Jesusland for help locating the ex-con. The Guatemalan agrees to help if the price is right.

I’ve still got my doubts about Norton. I think he is complicit somehow in what is going on. I’m not sure that he’s the puppet master but he seems very suspect at this point. I say that based on his role in the story at this point and my history with novels and movies of this sort.

Marsalis runs into Carmen Ren on the street. She finds him. She doesn’t know who Onbekend is. She explains that she is a Thirteen from China. She used to work for the government but she broke free and has been a free agent for a decade or more.

She was hired to babysit Merrin. Her client abandoned her after Merrin was killed. She wants payback but isn’t very specific about the identity of her client. Also, she’s pregnant. She isn’t sure who the father is. Could be Merrin but it could also be Osborne.

I recall this encounter between Marsalis and Ren. I thought it had occurred on Bulgakov’s Cat. I remembered correctly that she was also a Thirteen and that she was pregnant. I’m pretty sure that this is it for her. She won’t be seen from again.

Chapter 49

Carl and Tom interrogate Jeff, Tom’s brother. They know he was in contact with Carmen Ren. He was her contact. It was Human Cost Foundation, his employer, that hired her. Apparently HCF has been a front for a company that worked on illegally breeding more thirteens. Jeff doesn’t exactly come out and tell all without some physical encouragement from Carl.

Other things they learn: Onbekend is Merrin’s twin. Ortiz is the one behind it all. All the people who were killed were previous employees of HCF or whatever organization was ultimately behind the program to breed more genetic variants. Jacobsen is somehow connected to all this. HCF is Andy always involved. Too many details. There are lots of nuggets of information dropped. As with many stories like this it all comes down to greed and politics.

Chapter 50

The interrogation continues although the chapter opens after it has ended. Carl and Tom are on a flight. They exchange a few words and then Tom flashes back to the interrogation. More details are dropped about how Jeff Norton and Eddie Tanaka tried to blackmail Ortiz over his connection to Scorpion Response. Ortiz responded by putting Onbekend on the job. There’s more to it than that but that’s the just of it. Tom narrates this part of the chapter. I’m still not convinced that he isn’t somehow behind it all.

Jeff plays both sides of the street. He delivers Tanaka’s message and pretends to be on Ortiz’ side. The chapter ends with Tom and Jeff getting into a fight after he reveals that he has sex with Megan, Jeff’s wife, after he told her about his philandering ways. Jeff fools Tom into leaving the room for a moment, during which Jeff presumably kills himself.

I’m kind of glad the interrogation was broken up between the two chapters the way it was. I thought it was a very effective way to handle it.

Chapter 51

Carl and Tom visit Ortiz in the hospital. They press him for the truth and he owns up, to a degree, to what he did. He is very cold about it. He insists that he was doing it all for the greater good. Tom is enraged. Carl is boiling inside but keeps his anger is check until the end of the chapter when breaks Ortiz’ neck.

Good chapter which made me think once again about the themes that run through noir fiction. It seems as though quite often there is some past wrong that re-emerges for one reason or another. Old scores that were never settled. People have to be silenced who know too much about the past.

Chapter 52

Norton deals with the team that shows up in response to Ortiz’ death. This part is s little fuzzy. They take their lead from him even though he was one of the only ones present when Ortiz kicked the bucket. He and Marsalis should be under immediate suspicion.

Marsalis contacts Amy Westhoff,Nathan’s jealous ex whom Eterkin suspected of tipping off the authorities. Westhoff doesn’t suspect a thing and doesn’t realize what is going on until it is too late. Carl shoots her with a dart that first paralyzes her and then kills her within minutes. He did it for Sevgi, on her behalf.

Epilogue: Pistaco

Chapter 53

Carl returns to the altiplano, the region where the book began. He knows that Greta Jurgens is Onbekend’s lover. He also knows that she will be hibernating at this time of year.

Carl invades Jurgens compound, kills most if not all of her security forces. He flashes back to conversations with Norton before he left. They caught up to Manco Bambarén’s cousin and squeezed him for information.

Carl finds Jurgens in deep sleep. Onbekend isn’t around. Carl is patient.

Chapter 54

Carl doesn’t have to wait very long before Manco Bambarén shows up with Onbekend and about 15 of his militia. Carl spills the dirt. He tells Manco what he knows about what Onbekend has been up to and how he used his own twin as bait.

Manco and Onbekend are half brothers. Blood is everything to Manco. He is incredulous and turns on Onbekend. Carl is ready to let Manco go when the crime lord turns and attacks. It isn’t long before Manco and Onbekend are dead.

The chapter ends with Carl wounded and having to deal with a dozen of Manco’s men.

Final thoughts

It took me almost 10 months (01/16/18 - 10/24/18) to get through Thirteen this time around. It was a good ride the second time around but definitely not the same as the first time.

I enjoyed it. There’s a lot that I did not recall but there were bits and pieces that I did. Making notes as I worked my way through the book helped me to get a more complete picture of what was going on and what happened. I recall feeling a little confused after the first read. The pieces were all assembled and explained at the end but I couldn’t contextualize them all because there part’s that I had just breezed through.

I like the ambiguous ending but I’m not fully satisfied with it.